Good evening, brothers and sisters. It is good to see everyone.
Please turn with me to our theme verse for this weekend’s conference, Hebrews 10:37.
For yet in a very little while,
He who is coming will come, and will not delay.
But My righteous one shall live by faith;
And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.
But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
Then, if we could look back several verses to Hebrews 10:19-23:
Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
Please turn also to Romans 12:3.
For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
And then Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.
Let us bow for a word of prayer.
Lord, we are so thankful to You for tonight. We pray, Lord, that Your covering would be over every one of us. Lord, in our hearts we have been longing to hear what is from You.
So, Lord, we pray tonight that You would have the full liberty and authority to speak to every one of our hearts, from the speaker to the listener. Lord, all of us bow before You. Without You, Lord, we have nothing.
So, Lord, tonight may You have the freedom to exercise Your headship among Your people. May all of us be listening and looking to You. Lord, all the things that have distracted our hearts—our travels here, the concerns of our lives—we lay them at Your feet.
Lord, we pray that You would have all the glory. May You be with us. We are so dependent upon You. We thank You, Lord. In Your precious name we pray. Amen.
The brothers, in their prayer before the Lord for this conference, have heard from the Lord that the topic on His heart is this matter of faith.
The matter of faith has probably never been more important than it is today. We all know that, in these times, living by faith is very much under attack by our adversary.
We remember that at the end of Paul’s life, he said three things:
I have fought the good fight,
I have finished the course,
I have kept the faith.
Then he said:
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing.
At the end of Paul’s life, he was saying something of great importance. He was saying that there is yet a fight worth fighting for.
In these days, the enemy has been at work among the Lord’s people—among us—to dull our hearts and to make us feel that there is no longer a fight worth fighting for.
Is it not true that we have been saved, and that in our salvation everything has been given to us? We would never deny that this is true. In fact, it is one of the most wonderful gifts any of us has ever received.
But, brothers and sisters, Paul was saying at the end of his life that there is yet something worth fighting for. The question for us today is this: Is that sense still in our hearts?
He was saying that there was a course for his life. That course was very much like a boat traveling on a set path. He said, “I have been on this course, and I have finished this course. I have kept the faith.”
Something had been given to him, and he had taken it. He sensed that there was something precious about this faith. Therefore, at the end of his life, he could say, “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.”
So, brothers and sisters, the Lord has put this question upon our hearts: What is this faith to us, particularly in these days? I should say, particularly to my generation: What is this faith? What does it mean to us? Do we still have the sense in our hearts that there is something left to fight for?
Whenever anyone engages in a battle or a fight, they enter with the sense that there is opposition, that there is danger, and that they must be willing to place themselves upon the field to be counted for a purpose and a mission.
The question for us today, brothers and sisters, is this: Do we still believe? Do we believe in the One Who said these things? Do we believe in the One Who is our Captain?
And if we believe, and if we believe in living by this faith, how does that translate into our real life?
The critical question is: How shall we live? In our theme verse, we see the answer. Let us look again at Hebrews 10:37. It is a short verse, but it is a very dense verse.
For yet in a very little while,
He who is coming will come, and will not delay.
But My righteous one shall live by faith;
And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.
For a moment, permit me to label the three parts of this verse: A, B, and C. I do not usually do this, but the verse is so dense that we need to look at it carefully.
Part A is this: “For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay.”
This tells us that, in His heart of hearts, the Lord is longing to come. The Bible tells us that He will not delay. That means that nothing in His own heart holds Him back.
The question we have to ask ourselves is: Why do we still sense that He has not come yet?
If this portion of the verse is true, He is like an Olympic athlete at the starting line, ready to run. In His heart, He will not delay, but He is waiting. The delay is not because of His intention. His intention in part A of this verse is very clear: He will not delay. Yet He is waiting for something.
The first part of our theme verse speaks of the Lord’s heart in these days. He is longing to come, and the delay is not on His part. He is waiting.
Then He gives us a hint in part B:
But My righteous one shall live by faith.
This is the main theme of the verse. It is drawn from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk and is quoted three times in the New Testament. It is also translated, “The just shall live by faith.”
When we look at where it is quoted—in Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians—we see that this is a great verse. It tells us, of course, that when we are saved, we are saved by faith. This is a tremendous blessing.
But Hebrews goes further. It says, “My righteous one shall live by faith.”
When we hear the words “My righteous one,” the word My tells us that these people already belong to Him. They are the ones who belong to Him. Then He says, “My righteous ones,” so they have already been made right.
The Bible is telling us not only that we are saved by faith, but that after we have been saved, after we belong to Him and have been made right before Him, the calling remains: “My righteous one shall live by faith.”
There is something important for us as we move forward: living by faith.
Then we come to part C:
And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.
The scholars tell us that the expression shrinks back is like a boat on a course pulling in its sails. It then flounders about, carried by the waves.
The Lord is saying that there is a moving forward. In this moving forward, He can be pleased in His people.
When we put all three parts together, we see that the Lord’s heart is not to delay. He is longing to come back, and He is waiting for the righteous to live by faith. When we live by faith, we are pleasing to His heart.
At this point, brothers and sisters, there needs to be a small clarification. The means of salvation is faith that believes, while the means of pleasing Him is faith that lives.
Think about this for a moment, because it is critical to our moving forward. We are saved by the wonderful, free gift of grace.
We think of when Philip found Nathanael and said, “We have found the One of Whom Moses spoke.” He was from Nazareth, and Nathanael said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said, “Come and see.” Nathanael came and found that He was the Messiah.
At the point of salvation, we see that in fallen humanity there is nothing good in any one of us. Yet the Lord has placed one small escape pod in fallen humanity.
I may have shared this with the Flushing brothers and sisters last year. I think of Princess Leia’s ship going down. There was no chance for salvation. But in a ship that was going down, there was one small escape pod.
There is nothing good in man—not one single thing. The only thing that can save us is that, in our heart of hearts, we can say, “Lord, I believe in You. You are my salvation.”
Every one of us has been saved in this way. This is the greatest gift, because it does not matter who we are, what we have done, or the heaviness of our sins. This escape pod is the small capacity to put our faith in Him.
Once we say, “I believe in You, Lord,” this faith saves us, and saves us to the uttermost—nothing added.
Our dear brother J. Vernon McGee liked to say, “Faith plus nothing equals salvation.” Is that not true, brothers and sisters? This is the great foundation of our life.
I still remember my grandmother when she was passing away. She was a lifelong Buddhist. On the last day of her life, after family members had been telling her the gospel for many years, she accepted the Lord.
She told my father to take the household idol and throw it into the trash. He did so, and she closed her eyes and passed away.
Do you know where she is, brothers and sisters? She is in glory. This is the great gift of our life: we are saved by one thing, and one thing alone—by faith.
Our salvation is faith believing, and it is a wonderful gift. But faith does not stop its work there.
By faith, the Lord begins to cause us to grow and to live. By faith, we have the opportunity in our lives to be pleasing to Him.
Of course, all of us think of the day when we will stand before our Lord, see Him face to face, and come before Him. What will we have to present? We long for Him to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
It is no longer a question of salvation. It is a question of standing before Him and having Him say, “I am pleased. I am pleased with what you have offered to Me in your life.”
We believe from our theme verse that, should the people of God live this way, He would say in His heart, “There is no longer a hindrance for My return.”
On that day, brothers and sisters, we will all rejoice when we see Him. We believe that this is somehow linked, as we see in this verse, to living a life of faith and to that life of faith being pleasing to His heart.
For this conference, brothers and sisters, the Lord has put it on the brothers’ hearts that our topic should be: To Live by Faith.
The topic assigned to me is specifically faith received. To be honest, when the brothers told me this topic, I immediately prayed and said, “Lord, once You explain what this means to me, then I will be able to share about it.” I really had no idea.
But I am thankful to the Lord because He opened the Word to me, and I think I caught a glimpse of what is in His heart for this subject.
The verse that the Lord brought before me is Numbers 11:11. This is how we will separate my two sessions on the topic of faith received.
Numbers 11:11 may be thought of as Moses’ first letter of complaint to the Lord. If anyone has ever received a letter of complaint at work, letters of complaint are often very true—more true than we would like to imagine.
Let us begin in Numbers 11:10:
Now Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, each man at the doorway of his tent; and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly, and Moses was displeased.
So Moses said to the Lord, “Why hast Thou been so hard on Thy servant? And why have I not found favor in Thy sight, that Thou hast laid the burden of all this people on me?
Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that Thou shouldst say to me, ‘Carry them in thy bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which Thou didst swear to their fathers’?”
Moses was saying, “Lord, this is what You commanded me to do. You commanded me to carry them as though I were nursing them. Not only must I carry them this way, but I must nourish them while leading them in the direction You want them to go.”
The Lord’s commandment was simple: His people needed to live by faith today, and they also needed to live by faith for the journey. They needed to be nourished and carried today, but He was leading them in a direction.
The matter of living by faith is just this. Sometimes, if we think of living by faith only in terms of direction, we can become completely lost.
Through the years, we have heard many wonderful things concerning the Lord’s purposes and His heart. Sometimes we hear them repeatedly, and after a while they become almost like lingo to us. We hear about the eternal purpose of God and begin to think that it is not applicable to us.
But, brothers and sisters, this life of faith is absolutely unto the eternal purpose of God. At the same time, the things of the Lord’s eternal purpose have every practicality for our daily lives.
The things of God’s eternal purpose govern our living day by day, and the way we live day by day influences the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
By the Lord’s grace, we would like to share on these two days concerning faith received. Tonight, we will consider faith received to live today. Tomorrow, by the Lord’s grace, we will consider faith received to live for the journey.
There is no tomorrow without living by faith today.
What does it mean to receive faith? Where does it come from?
In Romans 12, which we read together, the Bible states, “God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” This means that the Lord is the One Who grants us the faith to live day by day.
We also know from Hebrews 12 that the Lord Jesus is the Author of our faith. All the things of God come from God; that is the origin of our faith.
We remember also that in Luke 17, the disciples said, “Increase our faith.” The corollary to faith received is faith increased. The Lord is the One Who can increase our faith.
We read in 2 Corinthians that faith can grow. Thus, we trust that the Lord is the Author of our faith and the Perfecter of our faith. Faith comes from Him, and He can cause it to grow.
Sometimes we hear that, but what exactly does it mean? A number of years ago, when I asked the Lord, He gave me an analogy that I hope is as helpful to you as it was to me.
I have a particular love for Diet Coke. I probably should not, but I do. For a period of time, I drank it more than I should have.
One day, I was leaving for work. My son Aaron, who was probably three years old at the time, ran to me as I was leaving the house. He said, “Daddy, Diet Coke,” and he held a can of Diet Coke in his hand. He gave it to me just before I left.
Brothers and sisters, I have to tell you, I was so happy. My son knew that I loved Diet Coke, and he brought it and gave it to me.
But whose Diet Coke was that can? I have a job, and I work for a living. Through direct deposit, my job pays my checking account. Then I have a wonderful wife who knows what I like, so she goes to the grocery store and buys a twelve-pack of Diet Coke with that money and brings it home.
My wife used to leave it in the bottom cubbyhole, right where Aaron could reach it. If I placed that can before the brothers and sisters, perhaps some of the lawyers could tell me whose Diet Coke it was.
My suspicion is that everyone would agree: I worked for it, I earned the money, my wife bought it with my money, and in a court of law someone would finally decide that the Diet Coke belonged to me. It was mine. I paid for it.
But something that was mine had been made available to my little boy. He was able to go and get it. Something that belonged to me was made available to him. He could take it, come to me, and give it back to me.
When he did this, my heart was so happy. Technically, I could say, “This always belonged to me. Why should I be happy?” But it showed that my son had a heart for me.
Something was made available to him. He took it, used it, and brought it back to me.
That is the question of faith received. We are asking about the origin of this faith. We know that faithfulness is one of the fruits of the Spirit. The origin of faith is from the Lord, but He makes it available to us.
We who are sinners are given access to the things of His Son after we have been saved. What grace this is, brothers and sisters, that we can take of it and, by faith, bring it back to Him.
Where does our faith come from? In this sense, it is very simple and very real. We would like to consider from Whom we have received our faith.
Before we move on, we should mention that in Hebrews 11 we read that by faith all these things happened. Abel was able to make an offering. Noah, in reverence, prepared an ark. We think of those who were sawn in two, who were martyred, who quenched the power of fire, and of all the great men and women of God who lived by faith.
But, brothers and sisters, to live by faith does include those great moments, yet if we used Hebrews 11 as our only examples of living by faith, each of us would have a lifespan of five days.
If we thought of living by faith only as those great moments of life—choosing to be saved, choosing a career, choosing a wife, or doing something tremendous for the Lord—we would miss something important.
There are moments of great faith, faith manifested in our lives. But every public moment of a life lived by faith is supported and founded upon private moments of living by faith in day-to-day life.
Those once-in-a-lifetime moments are buoyed up by a regular life of faith lived before the Lord. What is immensely pleasing to Him is when we are faithful in small things every day, in the things the Lord has presented to us in our daily living.
May I say, brothers and sisters, that this is particularly important to my generation today. For those of us who are perhaps under fifty—I do not know, but I know more about those under fifty—we realize that the enemy is all around us.
He has dulled our hearts to the notion that there is still a life worth living in this way. The sense of right and wrong has been dulled out, and he is working particularly among us.
The suggestion is that we have every excuse not to live a life of faith. We have the excuses of our families, providing for them, mortgages, jobs, and being responsible for the responsibilities placed upon us.
In his cunning way, the enemy has made the life of faith seem very abnormal to us.
More than ever, brothers and sisters, we need to have in our hearts the desire: “Lord, where You lead, I am willing to go.”
The Lord has blessed us with many brothers and sisters who have gone before us and helped us to see something. Should the Lord tarry, and should these brothers and sisters go home to Him and receive a crown of righteousness, will the Lord find a testimony among His people?
It is not enough that we have heard great things. It is not enough that we can quote these great things or wear them like badges upon Christian uniforms, saying that this is the tradition and heritage we have inherited.
The Lord has the ability—like X-ray vision—to know what is real and what is superficial. He can distinguish between them.
We remember when the people of God came to the border of the promised land. The spies went in, and when they returned, Joshua and Caleb said, “Let us go in. Those giants will be our food. We can take them.”
But the other tribes said, “There is no way we are going in. We will be annihilated by them.” Because of this, they learned that their generation would not be permitted to enter.
Sometimes we do not remember that the next day they decided, “Well, let us go in anyway.” The outward behavior was the same, but the inward faith—the motivation—was not there. They were given a thorough beating.
The Lord is longing for something to be real in our hearts. We have heard many great things, but if the Lord were to look into our hearts, would He find that we live every day by faith?
Not merely in moments of greatness, when we must stand up and do something publicly, but in those private moments when the Lord has kept us hidden in our daily lives and we have lived a life of faith.
When we speak of faith received for today, we are speaking of an incredibly important matter. The things of God’s eternal purpose are closely linked to living today in what may seem like many mundane things.
The Bible reminds us that, for those who are saved, our hearts are anchored within the veil. An anchor is in one place, but if we look at the boat above the water, we can see it moving in a circumference around that anchor.
Our lives have a circumference of different things. When we are in college, we must attend school and study. When we are married, we must care for our children and our spouse. There are many daily, normal responsibilities.
But when we penetrate deeply into our hearts, where is the anchor of our souls? That is a critical question. Our daily lives can revolve around many things, but in our heart of hearts, where is the anchor of our life?
This is the life of faith.
The brothers gave me a verse to consider for this question: Hebrews 10:19-23. Let us read it again:
Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He Who promised is faithful.
These verses speak of drawing near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. How can we live this way, drawing near in full assurance of faith?
The verses give us two small hints concerning how our faith can be increased and received for daily life. The first is that we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, through the veil, which is His flesh. The second is that we have a great priest over the house of God.
By the Lord’s grace, let us use our remaining time to consider these two ways in which the Lord can increase our faith for today.
First, consider the veil. The veil was a piece of fabric hanging between the holy place and the Holy of Holies. It was perhaps two to five inches thick. It was a substantial barrier between the presence of God and the people of God.
Throughout time, this separation existed after humanity fell. At the beginning, after man fell, the tree of life—the life of God—was guarded. The Lord placed two cherubim there.
What are cherubim, brothers and sisters? Cherubim are angels. On Valentine’s Day cards, we see plump baby angels with little bows and arrows. But that is not what we read in Genesis.
Their weapon of choice was not a small bow and arrow. Their weapon was a flaming sword. If sinners tried to approach the presence of God, the cherubim would strike them down with these flaming swords.
Over the veil, cherubim were embroidered. The Bible says in two places that the veil was made with cherubim. I do not think the cherubim were helping to sew it together; rather, they were imprinted upon the veil.
The veil, with the cherubim upon it, reminded us that the presence of God was separated from sinners. It had to be this way, very much for our protection. If we had tried to go in, we would die.
The veil was our protection, but it was necessary because of our fallen nature. Even when the tabernacle was taken down, the veil covered the ark. Its purpose was to protect, cover, and function as a separation.
But here was the problem: the Lord’s intention was to draw us near to Himself. Yet the barrier was between us, and it would always be between us.
The Lord showed it to me as though the enemy had crafted a perfect, unsolvable puzzle. It is like all of us trying to get into a house with locked double doors. The only way inside is through those doors, but the key is locked inside the house.
We are standing outside, wondering how we can get in. The Lord is inside, desiring that we would come. In our heart of hearts, humanity knows that we need God, regardless of what the world says. In the deepest part of man, we know there is something more.
We want to enter, but we cannot. The door is locked, and the key is inside.
Two weeks ago, my mother-in-law’s home was broken into. The robbers tried to get in through the front door, destroyed it, crashed through the sliding door, and entered.
I went there at two-thirty in the morning. We closed the crashed-in sliding door with plywood. After I closed it with plywood, I realized that I could not get in anymore. The shattered doorway was closed, and I could not open it. The key was on the inside—or at least we could not find it later.
This is the conundrum: I want to get in, but I cannot get in.
The enemy also knew what was on the inside. Ezekiel tells us that he had been on the holy mountain, among the stones of fire. He saw the glory and knew the glory. His whole being was bent on trying to get in and usurp that throne. He had seen it, he wanted it, and every fiber of his being was set on taking that place.
But what we see in Hebrews 10 did not come freely. It came at great cost. The Lord Jesus loves us. His desire is that we would be able to live a life of faith and, in living that life, take of His life and bring it back to Him, so that His heart might be pleased and one day His bride would be made ready.
The enemy could not fathom the way. He knew there was a way out because he himself had been cast down and cast out. But the amazing thing is that the One Who sat upon the mountain of God, amid glory and the stones of fire, chose to become the key.
On that great day, He was born as a baby in Bethlehem.
Brothers and sisters, His intention was that He would come and open the veil so that we could enter in. We could not overcome this barrier, but this shows His heart of hearts: He was longing to come.
I often imagine the two cherubim about to strike as we seek to pass through. Then the Lord Jesus stands there with His hands raised, and through Him we walk in.
We can go to Him, hide in Him, and come out on the other side. The only way is that we would be hidden in Him. Then the cherubim cannot strike, because He is their Lord.
At great cost, He came and made a way for us to enter in.
On that day, some thirty-three years later, when the Lord was crucified on the cross, at the very end He said, “It is finished.”
What happened? Praise the Lord: the veil was torn in two from top to bottom.
From top to bottom! Those of us who are short are not excluded, and those who are tall are not excluded either. The whole veil was torn apart. Now we can enter in, and now that it is open, brothers and sisters, no one can shut it.
No one can shut it.
We are reminded in Romans that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This opening is forever.
The enemy cannot shut it anymore, so he changes his tactic. He wants us to be saved and remain on the outside, admiring the beautiful, torn-open way. He wants us to admire it from outside while the Lord calls to us, “Come in and enter in.”
We shared a little about this last year, brothers and sisters, but it is always true and always worth remembering: in order for our faith to grow day by day, we are to live within the veil.
We must choose in our hearts where we will live. The enemy and the world call to us, “Live out here.”
What is the standard of the world now? Our résumés, our zip codes, our tax brackets, and the things the world values on the outside that puff us up.
Again, especially to our generation, the enemy calls, “Stay here. Live out here. Be saved, but live out here—where you have the riches of the world.”
There is a cost, but the Lord says, “Come in. Live inside.”
It is inside, where we live every day, that our faith can grow. It is in this sharing of our lives with Him.
My sons—and I should probably give the example from my wife’s point of view—my sons and daughter have faith in their mother. They really do. The reason is that they live with her every day.
They know that when she says she will do something, she will do it. They live with her, they see it, and they believe.
When a great moment comes, when they must stand for something or when they need their mother the most, they know she will be there because, in all the normal daily things, she was there.
We should not minimize this, brothers and sisters. We sometimes think of great things, but living every day within the veil is very important.
In Hebrews 11, there are three examples that we can consider.
We think of Noah. He lived in a time when everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes, but Noah did not do that. He lived in the middle of nowhere and was commanded to build a gigantic boat, nowhere near any place where a boat could be used.
People could come and look at him and ask, “What are you doing?” They were doing what was right in their own eyes, and here was a man living by faith, doing what he had been asked to do by his Lord.
This shows that Noah was willing to live by faith.
When the time came and the rain began, he followed the Lord’s leading. They all went within the veil—the ark. They hid there, the door was closed, and the world was outside while they were inside.
This hiding in the ark had been the pattern of his life. When the moment came and the rain started, he had a place to go.
This is true for us, brothers and sisters. We are living in a time when everyone does what is right in their own eyes. If a young person in college, or anywhere else, says, “I am going to do what the Lord wants me to do,” the world will surely ask, “What are you doing?” It will shun us.
But we thank the Lord that when we live this way every day, when the great moment comes, we know where to hide. Noah and his family hid inside the ark.
The Bible gives the same example in Moses. It says that by faith Moses kept the Passover. On that day, when the Lord’s purposes were to be fulfilled, Moses told the people to take the blood of the sacrificial lamb and place it over their doors.
Then, when the time came, they were to hide within the veil. The blood represented the blood of our Lord, and the broken body was represented by the veil. They were to hide inside.
Moses and the people hid within their homes under the blood. Again, by faith, this is what it means: we live inside the veil, while the world is outside with its riches and plenty. We hide within.
My favorite example is Rahab. Noah and Moses seem like remarkable people, but who was Rahab?
Rahab saved the spies. She said to them, “I know that your Lord is going to destroy this city, so please spare me.” The spies told her, “Here is a scarlet thread. Hang it outside your window.”
If we think about it for a moment, this sounds like a crazy idea. An army is coming to destroy the city, and in order to be saved, she is supposed to take a thread and put it outside her window.
The thread was scarlet. She hung it out the window. By faith, she did it. Everyone who hid in her house was saved.
By faith, she did this. Living within the veil is very real. It could be done by Rahab, who was hardly anybody; by Moses; by every Hebrew; and by Noah.
The beginning of our life is the end of our life. Every one of us can live within the veil. This is what it means to live near to Him.
Practically speaking, living within the veil means that we share our daily life with Him. In the things that happen to us, we acknowledge Him.
One of the simplest ways to live within the veil is that when something happens, we thank the Lord. We recognize that what has happened to us is by His doing.
This has happened to me in preparing this message. I think the Lord wanted to make it real to me. I began to realize how many things the Lord does for us every day, and how we sometimes do not realize how actively involved He is in our daily life.
We think He is too great for this or too grand for that. But we must begin to thank Him and appreciate Him for what He does every day.
When that happens, there is a natural conclusion: our faith increases. It grows in a normal way—nothing huge, nothing artificial. It is very, very real.
This is the issue of living within the veil.
The second means given to us for having full assurance of faith is this matter of the priest.
A priest functioned in many roles. Priests made offerings for the people. Our Lord is an Advocate for us, and He also leads us in worship.
The second hint is that we have a wonderful High Priest.
I remember Joshua when he was about to battle in the land. When he came to Jericho and was looking over the land, he met a soldier with a drawn sword.
Joshua asked him, “Are you for us, or are you for our enemies?” The man answered, “No.”
Joshua had given him two choices: “Are you for us?” or “Are you for our enemies?” There was no third option, which was “No.” Yet he said, “No.”
He was saying, “I am neither for you nor for your enemies. You are for Me. I am not for you; you are for Me, because I am Captain of the armies of the Lord of hosts.”
Then Joshua took his shoes off and bowed before Him because he realized that he was looking at God, Who came as Captain.
Sometimes we wonder: In the Lord’s wisdom, why did He not come simply as an adult man to be crucified? Was He not wonderful and perfect enough to pay for our sins?
But our Lord, in His wisdom, came as a small baby. He grew up. The Bible leaves out many details concerning those years, but some things we know.
We know that He grew up and suffered difficulties. He was a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
Before Bethlehem, for many ages—in fact, from the beginning—by His hands the sun became a fiery ball. Yet we can imagine Him as a five-year-old boy looking at the sun He had created and having to squint because the God of the universe had been clothed in the small form of a man.
For all those ages, He could look directly into that fiery ball, and it was nothing to Him. But now He was in the form of a boy, and it was too bright for His human eyes.
Or think of the giant sequoias. By His hands, He caused them to grow. Yet when He became old enough to help His father as a carpenter, He could take up beams of wood and get a splinter.
What business does the Son of God have getting a splinter? You might say, “I never thought His skin could be penetrated.” But, brothers and sisters, He was very much a man.
Twenty-five years later, Roman guards would surely tell us that His flesh was not impenetrable.
He created the trees and He created the sun. What business did He have doing what He did? Could He not have found an easier way?
But we see the greatness of our Lord, His heart for us, and His wisdom. He knew that one day we would come to Him in need and would want to live by faith.
We would come to Him as our Priest and our Advocate, and He would be able to say, “I will advocate for you. I understand.”
He did this, brothers and sisters, so that no matter how old we are and no matter what we are going through, we can come to Him and know that He understands what it is to suffer.
In this we see the love of our Lord, His wisdom, and His calling to us: “Come close. Come near.”
He wants us to share our lives with Him. How can we live a life full of faith and full assurance? The Lord says, “Come near to Me. Share your life with Me. Tell Me. Let Me advocate for you.”
In all the challenging moments of our lives, we can rest upon the fact that there is One Who is always praying for us and always advocating for us.
His intention is that we would have the liberty and comfort to come to Him and say, “Lord, I need You.”
This is illustrated clearly in Hebrews 2:17-18:
Therefore He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
We see that He comes to the aid of those who are tempted. Everything was by design.
The greatness of the Lord to us today is that He wants us to come near to Him. As we live close to Him and share our daily life with Him, we begin to realize that He understands. His longing is for us to be near to Him.
In the hospital, there is a wonderful thing called a support group. When we take care of cancer patients, there is perhaps no more difficult place to work than the pediatric oncology floor.
Sometimes, when children are lost, parents think, “There is no way we can survive this.”
If a physician goes to them and says, “It is going to be okay. You will make it through. I have seen many parents go through this,” they may answer in that moment, “What are you talking about? How could you possibly know what I am going through?”
But if that mother finds another mother in a support group who has lost a son or daughter in the same way, and that mother says, “It is going to be okay. Right now, it is really hard, but you will make it through,” the effect is entirely different.
The person who is suffering knows that the other person has gone through the same thing. They are drawn to them.
It is only in that context that comfort and peace can be transferred. It is very much the same way with the Lord.
The Lord knows how we are. In His wisdom, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit determined that this was the right way: the Lord would be born this way and grow this way.
Why? Because on the day when we are suffering, when we are tempted, when we have no strength to stand, and when we do not know where to go, brothers and sisters, we can fall upon Him.
We can place our resting place upon Him. He knows. He understands.
The great thing is that when we do this, there is a result. We fall upon Him for help, and as we do this in our ordinary lives, our faith increases.
When times come in the future—perhaps once-in-a-lifetime moments—our faith has been built through regular, daily times of falling upon Him, resting upon Him, and entrusting things to Him.
These are the things that build our faith and cause it to increase. But there is no tomorrow without today. We must live by faith today.
To live within the veil and to know Him as our High Priest are the two things the Bible tells us will help us live this life in full assurance.
To conclude, brothers and sisters, what happens when we live within the veil and know Him as our Priest?
Something great happens in Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.
The Lord asked me to emphasize this: “I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me.”
When we live this way—living within the veil and laying our burdens upon our High Priest, Who can advocate for us—we begin to realize how much He loves us.
This love, brothers and sisters, is closely linked to living more and more by faith. As the knowledge of His love for us increases, we will be able to live by faith unto the pleasing of His heart.
Then, on that day, when we stand before the Lord, He may say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. I am well pleased, because I see My Son’s life in you.”
Even more than that, we hope that the Lord will see upon this earth people—young people, old people, all of us together—living by faith and returning to Him. His love will be expressed, His heart will be pleased, and He will say, “It is time.”
May we draw near to Him and be encouraged in this, brothers and sisters. He is great. He has made every way for us.
Let us bow for a word of prayer.
Lord, we are thankful to You for making every way for us to come before You and enter into Your presence. We thank You, Lord, for that great day of our salvation, and also for opening the way that we may know You and be near to You.
We thank You, Lord, for the many times You have reached out to us to live closer to You. Lord, we pray that our hearts would respond. Thank You, Lord.
Be glorified in our days together. Continue to speak to us. Cause those things that are from You to be placed in our hearts, and cause those things not from You to be forgotten, so that Your heart would be pleased.
Lord, we worship You. We thank You for Your faithfulness to us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.